Mortalidade infantil evitável e causas mal definidas no estado de São Paulo: uma análise temporal

Abstract

Introduction: Child mortality is directly related to a country's quality of life. For this reason, the United Nations Assembly included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the proposal to reduce preventable child deaths by 2030. Despite public policies to reduce this rate, the majority of childhood deaths in Brazil still occur for preventable reasons. Objective: To analyze the time series of infant mortality from preventable and ill-defined causes in the DRS of São Paulo, from 2012 to 2022, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: ecological time trend study that analyzed infant mortality from preventable and ill-defined causes, from 0 to 4 years old, in the 645 municipalities of the state of São Paulo. The data was extracted from the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System and analyzed using the Prais Winsten linear model, using the R software. Results: Between 2012 and 2022 there were 51.823 (0.7270/1,000 live births) and 1.244 (0.0174/1,000 live births) infant deaths from preventable and ill-defined causes in the state of São Paulo, respectively. There was a greater reduction in infant mortality from preventable causes in the Regional Health Departments (DRS) IV, XII, XIII and XV, while the reduction in mortality from ill-defined causes occurred only in DRS I and X. Conclusion: São Paulo's municipalities are still far from meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in terms of infant mortality from preventable and ill-defined causes, even though there has been a small annual decrease. There is a chance that this scenario will worsen in other regions of the country, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.